For twelve years, Alain Labbé sailed, alone or as a crew member for captains like Eric Tabarly and Olivier de Kersauson. In 1999, he made a fresh start as a farmer, and began to grow strawberries in Plougastel (Brittany). In nearly two dozen short chapters, he describes his daily life, made up of harvesting, selling at the market, economic worries, and gustatory delights, for a mouth-watering depiction of the constraints and pleasures of agriculture. Solitude bumps up against communal living, making it not unlike life on board at times. One is reminded of Sue Hubbell’s A Country Year or Dan O’Brien’s Buffalo for the Broken Heart. We can’t help savoring the descriptions of the plump red berry, while gradually coming to understand how a sailor could abandon the open seas for the rolling hills.

Alain Labbé was a sailor for 12 years. Now he is a strawberry farmer in Plougastel. In a similar vein to Sue Hubbell’s A Country Year, he describes his daily life as a farmer, made up of harvesting, selling fruit at the market, economic worries, and delightful tastes.